The present invention relates to a help guidance method for an OA (Office Automation) apparatus such as a personal computer, a work station, a word processor, an electronic filing system, or a facsimile machine and provides a help guidance method which is conveniently used by a user.
In the prior art help guidance method described in JP-A-62-90756 which has title "Document Producing Apparatus", there is typically known a method in which, when an operation assisting key is pressed down, on the basis of the working process at that time, the contents of the operation assistance are determined, and, on the basis of the determined contents, property sheet data corresponding to the necessary operation guide information is displayed. Moreover, as described in JP-A-1-37613 which has title "Help System for an Electronic Apparatus", there is also known a method in which, on the basis of input words and input using a help key, the desired document for explaining a function is read out from a helping word dictionary to be displayed on a display device. Further, as described in JP-A-1-99122 which has title of "System for Outputting a Message of Explaining terminology", there is also known a method in which, when pointing a term which is intended to be explained on the help message, explanatory information is output.
Thus, in the prior art, the help message, which is presented to the user at the time when the help function is called, is text information, so that the user must read in detail the text help message and then understand the contents thereof. Therefore, there arises a problem that the operation is troublesome for the user and the work must be interrupted for a long time. Moreover, the help message with respect to the graphic form editing, the table production, the image editing and the like is not easily represented in text form. Furthermore, the contents of the help message text are not easily understood by the user. This is another problem. The help guidance is a support mechanism which presents the guidance information to the user in the case where the procedure and the like are not clear when the user intends to start the work, or in the case where the error occurs during the work and the disposition therefor is not clear for the user. Therefore, when all of the help guidance is formed by the text message, as described above, the inconveniences may occur in many cases.
Incidentally, the possibility of the help system utilizing an animated picture as the help guidance, rather than the text information, is suggested in the report introduced by the Topics of "MACLIFE" (August 1991, pp. 120 to 123). However, the detailed realization method is not disclosed in this report.
On the other hand, with respect to the icon in which the information is displayed in the form of picture, the user can intuitively grasp the concept thereof, whereas the interpretation of the picture is entrusted to the user and therefore it is unsuited for the presentation of the detailed information.
The guidance method utilizing the icon is, for example, shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 537,493 filed on Jun. 12, 1990 by Hitachi, Ltd.